Housekeepers are the unsung heroes in hospitality. Hotel cleanliness is one of the key aspects guests will factor in when they are reviewing their experience at your hotel. Housekeeping teams are turning rooms around quickly to make sure one of the first impressions guests have at your hotel is a good one. When you have high standards of cleanliness, you are promoting guest satisfaction, brand loyalty, and overall profitability. But are you making the most of this crucial component? Improvement in your housekeeping SOP will make it easier for your team to maintain a high level of cleanliness. Here are several strategies you can use to improve your housekeeping operations. 

Upgrade your equipment

Performing regular maintenance on your equipment, and deciding if it is worth upgrading, is a smart strategy if you are looking to improve your overall cleanliness. Equipment should be inspected for wear and tear, and repaired as needed. If your cleaning equipment is outdated, you will be spending more time and money fixing the equipment and trying to make do with inefficient tools. Maybe it’s time you upgrade equipment like vacuums, washers, dryers, floor polishers, etc. You might feel that your equipment works fine, but the moment you swap it out you will see how much cleaner your property can be. Not only that, you are also guaranteed to hear positive feedback from your guests about the cleanliness of your property.

Leverage technology

Most housekeeping requires manual labor, but there are areas of their job you can make easier with the right technology. Technology can help your housekeeping department with keeping a log of requests, crossing items off their to-do list, managing inventory, and creating purchase orders. You can also use the tech to find data that will help you identify trending requests, monitor staff productivity, and offer feedback that will empower your staff to level up their service. Housekeepers don’t need to do everything by hand; when you leverage technology for their team, you will increase productivity and ultimately guest satisfaction scores. 

Implement communication tools

Internal communication is the most important strategy for a successful housekeeping team. Rather than relying on text messages between team members that may or may not require translation, or sticky notes that may get lost, teams can leverage technology and tools to strengthen team communication. Tools like Kipsu Exceed have great features that will help the housekeeping department, including language translation, ticketing that you can hand off to other teams, and maintenance checklists. All of these features will reduce the risk of miscommunication and build a strong foundation to support your team’s success.

Create a cohesive and efficient checklist

The tried and true checklist is the best way to make sure every task is completed and meets your hotel’s standards. If you want to improve your housekeeping efficiency, a methodical checklist is key. Rather than writing each task down as you think of it, be thoughtful in your lists, and order them in ways that would make sense of how tasks should be completed. Start from the space furthest from the door, work top-down, etc. Be intentional with how you order your tasks on your checklist, and you will make the job much easier for your housekeeping staff. 

You don’t have to implement all of these strategies at once, but even focusing on one will improve your operations and thus your overall guest experience. We made it easy for you: get started on these strategies right away and download our free housekeeping checklist!

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